Dec. 10, 2013

The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission is recommending Wayne County Circuit Judge Bruce Morrow, shown in September 2012, be suspended from his job without pay for 90 days after finding that he committed multiple acts of misconduct. / Jessica J. Trevino/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission is recommending Wayne County Circuit Judge Bruce Morrow be suspended from his job without pay for 90 days after finding that he committed multiple acts of misconduct.

The decision released today said Morrow committed judicial misconduct in several cases, including one in which Morrow allowed a man who was convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a person under age 13 back into the community on bond.

The report said Morrow, who works in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice overseeing criminal cases, refused to comply with the statute, without explanation, and said his handling of the case shows “blatant disregard for the law.”

It also found Morrow committed misconduct in a first-degree murder case where a victim’s family was not allowed in the courtroom, in a case where a defendant was not sentenced to the required term in a drunken driving case and when he brought a defendant out of lock up, sentenced him and returned him to lock up with no security in the courtroom.

“(Morrow) placed those in his courtroom, and in the rest of the courthouse, in danger by sentencing an unrestrained defendant, who had been convicted of violent crimes and was facing a lengthy prison term, with no deputies or court security in the courtroom,” the decision said.

Morrow could not immediately be reached for comment.

His attorney, Donald Campbell, responded to an email from the Free Press saying, the “JTC wrongly concluded that good faith decisions can be punished.”

He said he and his client hope for vindication in the Michigan Supreme Court and said the recommendation ignores a master’s findings made after hearing evidence from more than a dozen witnesses who testified in favor of Morrow.

Retired Oakland County Circuit Judge Edward Sosnick, the special master appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to hear allegations of misconduct against Morrow, found misconduct in only two of 10 counts filed in a formal complaint by the commission, according to an opinion filed with the report from a judge, who did not agree with all the commissioners’ findings of misconduct.

The decision will be filed with the Michigan Supreme Court, which is expected to hear oral arguments in the matter next year.